Pacific NorthWest LNG Awards FEED Contracts, Canada

Pacific NorthWest LNG Ltd. has awarded Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) contracts for its proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in British Columbia to three international engineering contractors – Bechtel, KBR/JGC joint venture, and Technip/Samsung Engineering/China Huanqiu joint venture.

These competitive contract awards represent an important next step towards Pacific NorthWest LNG designing and constructing a world-class LNG export facility in the District of Port Edward, near Prince Rupert, British Columbia. As part of the FEED process, and to build Canadian LNG engineering expertise, Pacific NorthWest plans to recruit and hire up to 30 Canadian engineers who will be temporarily embedded with the FEED contractors over the next one to two years.

“This world-class engineering and design work provides a tremendous opportunity to begin the process of creating an LNG knowledge center here in Vancouver,” said Greg Kist, President of Pacific NorthWest LNG. “Hiring Canadian engineers and placing them in companies with decades of international experience in LNG engineering will ultimately pay long-term dividends in establishing a base of Canadian LNG engineering expertise in our British Columbia operations.”

The FEED and Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Commissioning (EPCC) bid is expected to be complete by August 2014. At the end of 2014 Pacific NorthWest LNG partners, Malaysia’s national energy company, PETRONAS and Japex, plan to make the final investment decision on the project. Following completion of the FEED work and awarding of the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning work, the Canadian team of engineers will be mobilized to the Pacific NorthWest LNG’s Vancouver office or at the site in the Prince Rupert area.

“LNG development is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to gain a foothold in a global industry, create well-paying jobs for British Columbians today, and keep us on the path to a debt-free B.C.,” says British Columbia’s Premier Christy Clark. “Pacific NorthWest LNG’s announcement of its FEED contracts is another positive step forward towards growing this industry and creating lasting benefits for generations to come.”

“This is an exciting step for Pacific NorthWest LNG,” said Kist. “Not only are we moving forward in our plans to build a major LNG export facility here in British Columbia, we are developing a core of Canadian engineering expertise for a promising new segment within the Canadian energy industry. This investment in skills training will help ensure that we establish and grow our LNG capacity and operations for many years.”

Marco Villa, Technip’s Senior Vice President of Technip Region B, declared: “This award confirms our strong position in the liquefaction of natural gas, bringing extensive knowledge and conceptual design capabilities to our client’s project. It is also in line with our strategy to get involved at early stages of projects.”

“We are pleased to play an important role in this world-scale facility. This award is further indication of KBR’s position as a leading provider of gas monetization solutions for our clients around the world,” said Mitch Dauzat President, KBR Gas Monetization. “We look forward to working with Pacific NorthWest and our partner JGC Corporation on this historic LNG export facility.”

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LNG World News Staff, May 22, 2013; Image: Pacific NorthWest LNG